The Camp Fire Girls in Glorious France

by Margaret Vandercook

  CHAPTER XI A Day in Paris

  A few days later the Camp Fire girls and their chaperons motored fromVersailles into Paris for the day.

  The little town of Versailles, once famous as the abode of royalty, isonly a short distance from the French capital and easily reached bystreet car or automobile.

  As Mrs. Burton, Miss Patricia and the entire group of girls started offtogether, they composed a somewhat formidable party. Their plan was tospend a few hours together and later to separate to fulfill a number ofdifferent engagements.

  There was a particular reason for today's excursion, which took placeupon a Saturday forever to be remembered. The Supreme Council of thePeace Conference was to have its first meeting.

  Although the Conference was not to assemble until afternoon, by twelveo'clock the Camp Fire party found the streets crowded with sight-seers,soldiers and civilians, men and women of many nations.

  Foreigners who had been living in Paris during the four years of the war,with Germany sometimes knocking almost at her gates, had found a newcharacteristic in the Latin city. The Paris of the first few days of thegreat war, with her sudden burst of passion and unrestraint, had alteredto a soberer Paris. Calm under attack, even under apparent defeat, shehad given the world an extraordinary example of courage andsteadfastness.

  As Paris had borne her discomfiture, so she bore her present triumph.

  Today the girls were surprised to find how little excitement there seemedto be in spite of the number of people to be seen.

  The Allied representatives, who formed the Supreme Council of the PeaceConference, were to have a warm and hospitable welcome from the citizensof Paris. But there was no evidence of the spontaneous joy and enthusiasmwhich had greeted President and Mrs. Wilson several weeks before upontheir first arrival in the city.

  After an early luncheon the Camp Fire party went directly to a house nearthe Quai d'Orsay where Senator Duval had secured them seats upon a littlebalcony overlooking the bridge and the long windows of the "Salle de laPaix," in the French Foreign Office, where the formal opening of theConference would take place.

  From their places on the veranda they could look down upon the spectatorsswarming back and forth, but restrained by the double line of Frenchgendarmes who were to keep the streets clear for the approach of thedelegates.

  The winter afternoon was unexpectedly brilliant with a clear blue sky andbright sunshine. Far up and down the River Seine were the series ofbeautiful bridges which connect the two sides of the City of Paris.Little boats were riding peacefully at anchor near the quais. Glancingupward one beheld the skyline of the golden and white city. As many ofthe houses and public buildings of Paris are built either of white stoneor yellow cement, Paris often appears white and gold in the sunlight.

  "Do you think we will be able to recognize the delegations as they drivetoward the Foreign Office?" Peggy Webster inquired a little breathlessly.In spite of her ordinary self control she had lost her usual color andwas pale with emotion.

  Betraying a good deal of only partially suppressed excitement herself,Mrs. Burton smiled and nodded in response.

  "I think you and Bettina and I shall at least recognize President Wilson.Aunt Patricia is such a partisan of the French, she is probably moreinterested to discover Clemenceau, France's remarkable old Premier, whois known as 'The Tiger.' But look!"

  It was now quarter of three o'clock.

  At this moment a carriage was seen to drive up before the steps of theForeign Office. The troops began blowing a fanfare of trumpets. Thecarriage stopped and several small men in black frock coats got out.These were the Japanese delegates to the Conference. They were followedby the Siamese and then the East Indians in their picturesque turbans.

  Suddenly one appreciated the Allies in the great European war had notbeen merely the four nations which had borne the brunt of the fighting.They represented eighteen nations from every quarter of the globe; forthe first time in the world's history they were to meet this afternoon inthe interest of a world peace.

  Later other delegates continued to arrive, the Camp Fire girls leaningperilously over their balcony to watch them, Miss Patricia and Mrs.Burton crowding close behind.

  All at once a different emotion swept over the crowd in the street.

  Bettina Graham turned to clutch Mrs. Burton by the arm.

  "President Wilson!"

  There was no need for her explanation. At this instant the American girlswere convinced that the fanfare of trumpets was expressing a more ardentwelcome. Everywhere faces had brightened, women were seen holding uptheir babies in their arms. The people in the streets and from thewindows of the houses nearby, were making _more_ of a demonstration.

  Through the clear air, loud shouts were resounding, "Vive le Wilson! Vivele Wilson!"

  A tall man, holding a top hat in his hand, and with his hair almostwhite, smiled and bowed. A moment later he also disappeared up the stepsof the French Foreign Office.

  Ten minutes after, at exactly three o'clock in the afternoon, the FrenchPresident Poincare made his appearance.

  When he entered the Foreign Office the outside doors were closed.

  Almost immediately the crowds in the streets began to disperse.

  The French President was to make an address of welcome to the visitingdelegates. It might be hours before the famous guests to the Frenchcapital would again reappear in the streets.

  "Do you think we had best wait here sometime longer until the way isclear, Aunt Patricia?" Mrs. Burton inquired. "All of us have a number ofimportant matters to attend to before we return to Versailles, but I amalways afraid of crowds!"

  "Then you should never have set foot in Paris today. I told you that youwere not strong enough," Miss Patricia returned unsympathetically. "Sofar as I am concerned I am obliged to be off at once. Sally, I believeyou wish to come with me. Bettina, you and Alice Ashton and Vera are togo with Marguerite Arnot to meet several of her friends. I believe,Peggy, that you and Mary Gilchrist are to remain with Yvonne and have teawith some acquaintances of hers. Polly, as usual you have an appointmentalone. Remember you are to be responsible for three of the girls and Iwill meet the others. We are all to be at home for dinner in Versaillesthis evening at seven o'clock."

  As if she were a Major-General, having issued her command Miss Patricia,followed by Sally Ashton, departed.

  A few moments later the others went down into the street together, butseparated beyond the bridge. Mrs. Burton, Yvonne, Peggy and Mary droveaway in one direction, while the other girls, climbing into an ancienthorse cab, moved off toward one of the poorer neighborhoods of the city.

  Half an hour they drove through the narrow, winding streets of the Latinquarter, the three American girls fascinated by the unique scenes, whichwere a matter of course to Marguerite Arnot, who had spent years of herlife in this vicinity.

  Along the route were numerous small art shops filled with posters, someof them continuing to represent war and others the approach of peace. Theposters were painted in bold, crude colors, or else in pastels. Thefigures were sometimes bizarre and sometimes beautiful, but always theywere unusual, since the French artist has an unusual gift for posterwork.

  At one of the small art shops, Bettina insisted that they dismount for afew moments. She had spied a poster in the window which she wished topurchase for Mrs. Burton. Oddly the figure of the woman, althoughsymbolizing France, was not unlike Mrs. Burton. The drawing represented awoman dark and slender, with a small head and heavy black hair, withdelicate and large, expressive eyes. In the drawing the woman hadgathered into her arms the children of France. Above the woman andchildren, seated at a small table, were a group of men who were supposedto be writing the terms of a new world peace. The idea of the posterundoubtedly was that no matter what the peace terms might be, Francewould continue to protect her children. It was entitled "GloriousFrance."

  Beyond this art shop, a few blocks further on, Marguerite Arn
ot orderedthe cab to stop before a house where lived the friends to whom she was tointroduce the three American girls.

  Bettina stopped to pay the cabman, who was the typical French cab driverin a tall battered silk hat, the girl drivers having nearly alldisappeared soon after the signing of the armistice.

  The other girls went on and stood at the door talking to the concierge.

  Instead of joining them at once, Bettina stood hesitating at the edge ofthe sidewalk. Never before had she beheld such a street, or such a houseas they were about to enter! The street was narrow and dark, the househad a grey, poverty stricken look and was curiously forbidding. Therewere no people near save a few old women talking together.

  Then Bettina secretly reproached herself for her own absurdity and falseattitude.

  Marguerite Arnot had explained that the old house where she had oncelived and where her friends were still living, was in one of the humblestquarters in Paris. The girls were able to support themselves only in thepoorest fashion by being apprenticed to French dressmakers.

  Bettina Graham really had no sense of superiority because of her wealthand social position. Never for a moment did she forget that her ownfather had been an extremely poor boy who against every familydisadvantage had worked his way to a distinguished position.

  When she did finally reach the other girls, who were still talking to theconcierge, she had still to fight an uncomfortable impression.Undoubtedly the concierge was a strange and unpleasant looking old woman.She was tall, with a dark, thin face, heavy eyebrows which were turninggray like her hair, and eyes with a peculiar searching expression.

  Apparently she was pleased to see Marguerite Arnot again, as Margueritehad lived in her house until Miss Patricia Lord had insisted that shecome to live with her at Versailles.

  The next moment Bettina was the last of the small procession of fourgirls to mount the tenement stairs.

  The stairs were dark and windowless, but Marguerite Arnot led the waywithout faltering. Finally she knocked at a door on the third floor.

  The next instant the door being opened, the Camp Fire girls andMarguerite entered a large, bare room. Inside the room, and evidentlyexpecting their arrival, were six young French girls, most of themyounger than the American girls.

  They were all dressed in black so that the effect upon first meeting themwas depressing. But Marguerite had previously explained that the girlshad been made orphans by the war.

  They were living together in a single apartment in order to make a homefor themselves with the least possible expense.

  Two of them were sisters, the others were not relatives, butacquaintances and friends whom a common need had brought together.

  Only a few months before, Marguerite Arnot had first made theiracquaintance. At the time she had occupied a small room alone just acrossthe hall and, as she was both ill and lonely, the entire number of girlshad been wonderfully kind to her. It was therefore natural thatMarguerite should at once think of these girls as forming the nucleus forone of the first Camp Fire units in Paris.

  The room had evidently been hastily gotten ready for the visitors. Nearlyall the shabby furniture, except a few chairs, had been pushed back intodark corners.

  At once the American girls felt the room to be bitterly cold, colder thanthe outside as it had no sunshine. The French girls were evidentlyaccustomed to the temperature. Never at any time are the houses of theFrench, even the wealthy homes, warm enough for American ideas, andduring the war fuel in France had become an impossible luxury for thepoor.

  Marguerite Arnot immediately appreciated the situation. At present theopen fireplace was filled only with odd pieces of old paper andcardboard.

  Soon after she held a little whispered conversation with one of theyoungest of the girls.

  A moment after the girl disappeared to return a little later with a tinybundle of sticks and a small pan of hot coals which she had secured fromthe concierge.

  Therefore, it was actually Marguerite Arnot, who, kneeling down beforethe tiny grate, lighted the first Camp Fire among the French girls inParis.

  Having studied French all her life, gaining her first lessons from aFrench governess in her childhood, Bettina Graham spoke French fluently.Alice Ashton's French had been largely acquired at school, neverthelessshe had learned a fair amount of ordinary conversation after the lastyear's residence in France.

  With Vera Lagerloff the effort to talk freely in a foreign tongue wouldalways remain difficult. But then she was not given to talking in her owntongue to the same extent as the other Camp Fire girls, always preferringto listen if it were possible.

  Today she decided that her position as a silent onlooker might proveespecially interesting.

  Discovering that there were an insufficient number of chairs for them allto be seated, Bettina had introduced the subject of the Camp Fire byexplaining their custom of seating themselves in a circle or semicircleupon Camp Fire cushions. Naturally, as they had no cushions at present,the floor would serve.

  Bettina then lighted the three candles she had brought with her for thepurpose explaining their meaning, Work, Health and Love. She also recitedin French the Camp Fire desire.

  It was Vera Lagerloff's opinion that Bettina Graham possessed a greatergift at all times for explaining the purposes and ideals of the AmericanCamp Fire organization than any one she had ever heard, except their ownCamp Fire guardian.

  This afternoon she appeared particularly interesting and enthusiastic.

  In talking before a number of persons Bettina had an odd fashion offorgetting the shyness which so often overwhelmed her in meetingstrangers.

  How often Bettina and Vera, so different in temperament, in tastes andopportunities in life, in the last few years of membership in the sameCamp Fire group, confided their secret ambitions to each other.

  Vera was at present recalling Bettina's confidence as she watched herexplaining the American Camp Fire mission before the group of youngFrench girls.

  Disliking society Bettina had insisted that she never wished to marry orat any time to lead a society life. Instead she meant to find some causewhich would be of especial importance to women, devoting her time andenergy to it.

  Why should this not be Bettina Graham's future? It was the life of a fewexceptional women, and Bettina might be one of them. The fact that shewas his daughter and not his son need not prevent Bettina from inheritingher father's gifts.

  Vera was interested to observe the impression that Bettina was at thistime making upon her small audience.

  The French girls were unusual types in Vera's knowledge. They must haveranged from about twelve to sixteen or seventeen years of age. But theirfaces were older than American girls of the same age. Their figures alsolooked more mature in their plain well fitted black dresses. Then, inspite of their poverty, they had the unmistakable French air and a stylewhich was peculiarly their own.

  But with their thin, sharply pointed faces, sallow complexions and darkhair, in Vera Lagerloff's opinion, they were not a pretty collection ofgirls. The exceptions were Marguerite Arnot and a girl who seemed to feelan extraordinary attachment for her.

  Since their entrance into the room, except for the few moments when shehad disappeared in answer to a request from Marguerite and had returnedwith the material for the fire, she had not left Marguerite's side.

  At present she sat clutching the older girl's skirt as if she neverwished her to escape.

  To the group of American girls with whom she was at present making herhome, Marguerite Arnot represented both a novelty and an enigma. Theyknew little of her history, as she showed no desire to talk of herself,save the few facts Miss Patricia had seen fit to tell Mrs. Burton, withthe idea that she repeat them.

  Marguerite and Miss Patricia Lord had met originally in a dressmakingestablishment in Paris. At that time Miss Patricia was having the costumemade which she had worn at her dinner party and which had been such arevelation to her family. Marguerite, when about to try on MissPatricia's dress, beca
me unexpectedly ill and fainted during the process;otherwise Miss Patricia might never have taken the slightest notice ofher. She took Marguerite to her home and there, finding that she livedalone and had no one to care for her, the eccentric but kindly spinsterassumed the responsibility. Later, Marguerite had been invited toVersailles as a working member of Miss Lord's present household.

  There was no question of the French girl's refinement, or of theundoubted talent she possessed. But of her character, the hopes,ambitions and ideas which compose a human personality, the Camp Firegirls understood but little.

  She had explained that her mother had been an artist and her father alawyer in a smaller city not far from Paris. Her father died when she wasonly a tiny girl, leaving his family penniless, and her mother hadattempted to make their living with her art.

  But either artists were too numerous in Paris, or else her mother hadpossessed insufficient ability, for after a year or more of hopelessstruggle, she had devoted her attention to dressmaking.

  In this she had been successful; for nearly as long as Marguerite Arnotcould remember, she had been able to assist her mother with her work,sitting by her side as a tiny girl she had pulled out bastings and hemmedsimple seams. In spite of their poverty she and her mother had been happytogether.

  Then the war had come and they had been among its many unheeded victims.With almost no work, with the added strain and sorrow, Madame Arnot'shealth had given way, so that in the second year of the war Margueritehad been left to struggle on alone.

  What she had suffered through loneliness and poverty in these last twoyears, probably she did not like to discuss.

  There were traces of struggle in the face which Vera Lagerloff was nowstudying, as she beheld it upturned toward Bettina, listening intently toBettina's speech.

  Marguerite's face was a pure oval, her eyes large and gray with heavilyfringed dark lashes and her complexion so colorless at present that herlips seemed unusually red in comparison. The expression of her mouth wasa little sad, although she seemed at the moment wholly absorbed either byBettina Graham's words or by her manner.

  The younger girl, beside Marguerite, was thin and dark with brilliantblack eyes set in a sharp almost too clever little face.

  When she occasionally glanced toward Bettina, her manner was moreresentful than admiring.

  Yet when Bettina had finished speaking, it was Julie who asked the firstquestion.

  "Then if we start a Camp Fire group of our own, you will invite us toyour house at Versailles where Marguerite Arnot is living?" she demandedso unexpectedly that Bettina, a little amused and a little surprised,could only reply:

  "Why of course, I should be glad for you to come in any case, and Iintended to ask Miss Lord or our Camp Fire guardian to invite you. Butyou must only organize a Camp Fire if the ideas which I have explained soinadequately in any way interest you."

  Bettina then turned to the older girls in the room. Nevertheless she hadrealized that Julie Dupont, in spite of her youth, was an undoubted forceamong them. Even as she had talked she had been able to observe the younggirl's sharp and not altogether pleasing personality.

  The next moment Bettina added:

  "I wonder if all of you _can_ come out to our house at Versailles nextSaturday afternoon, a week from today? I know you are only free onSaturday. Our Camp Fire guardian, Mrs. Burton, wishes very much to knowyou and will write you a more formal invitation. Miss Arnot, will youplease persuade your friends to come."

  Fortunately the other girls required no urging, but if influence had beennecessary, it was Julie Dupont, who was seldom without the resources toaccomplish her own purpose.